I have never been in a relationship where I felt like I could be myself, 100%, and be accepted. And because it's so exhausting trying to be someone, it's always been easier to have superficial relationships and keep people at a distance. This has led to a feeling of loneliness for much of my life and a lot of distrust in being able to have authentic, intimate relationships. But when you enter into a relationship with God, you begin to learn the truth, the truth about God and the truth about God yourself. And something that has been made extremely clear to me is that a huge source of contention in my relationships is actually my own selfishness. In my quest to receive true love, I have often neglected to show true love to others, partly because I didn't know how to do it, but I'm learning. I believe that loving others begins with trying to see people the same way God sees them. You. God has haunted me all my life, never let me go, no matter how hard I fought him or how far tried to run. When I saw myself as a failure, He saw me as someone with destiny. As I made one mistake after another, He offered me mercy and forgave me, offered me grace, and blessed me anyway. He took the story of my life for others to look at judiciously, and made it a story of redemption and gave it to me